HEALING RETREAT
The Returning invites you to reconnect with country, self and communtiy.
A UNIQUE CULTURAL HEALING IMMERSION
This Cultural Immersion is more than a healing retreat. You will leave, nourished, inspired, and fully empowered,
lt is a unique experience of connection, education, and culture.
Suppot our Indigenous communtiies in the northern rivers and support our young cultural and health and wellness facitlaitors.
This experience and journey is a unique Indigenous-led retreat for
people to learn, grow, and be inspired by Indigenous people and
Culture.
It is an invitation to embark on visioning and co-creating a new paradigm of existence.
The Retreat is ideal for Government Departments, Shires,
Councils, Organisations, Education Departments, and the Corporate
Sector.
We also have MOB ONLY Immersions and Public Immersions.
Our Mob only programs are full funded by our organisation with the help of income from other retreats. We invite you to be apart of the solution.
To pay it forward.
The Immersion can be tailored to suit your organisation's or personal needs and wants.
We can offer any of the following
Accommodation
Catering
Workshops (You choose)
Resources
Facilitation
Bus Transfers
Fire & Storytelling
Smoking ceremony
ELDERS RETREAT
We acknowledge our Bundjalung Country. We acknowledge and pay our respects to our Elders past and present. Thank you.
We started in 2018 with a seed to improve the health of Indigenous mothers and women in regional areas, to promote connection to country, earth based skills and how this weaves into sustainability and custodianship. Our programs are embedded in earth based education and embodied practices which incorporates nature therapy and are culturally safe for our First Nation participants and mothers.
We are continuing cultural obligations by caring for our elders and changing the economic value of women’s work which is often the unpaid labour of mothers, carers, daughters and grandmothers that upholds the care economy which supports this capitalist system to thrive.
We are ensuring our elders age with dignity and are caring for them is our highest priority.
We see the retreats as improvements to the mainstream quality of care for elderly people and we believe that it is an imperative to improve outcomes and reduce costs for our society to ensure our elders are looked after.
We believe that returning to Indigenous ways of relationally, reciprocity, care, connection and interdependence are necessary for individual and collective healing and wellbeing, for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
Aunty Rose, a Bundjalung Elder who has served her family and community for decade attended our 2023 retreat. After the retreat, Aunty Rose reported that she “had never felt so cared for in her entire life.” And that having access to land and to just be still and relaxed brought her to tears. Nowhere to be and nowhere needing anything of her.
Western research affirms the importance of this cultural tenet, showing that when mothers are cared for and supported, then children and whole families and communities thrive.
Our Elders Health Retreat program gives much needed rest, nourishment and wellbeing support to local Indigenous Elders who have been caring for their families and communities for thirty, sometimes forty or more, years. These programs are culturally-safe health retreats for Elders, allowing these retreats to be run at no cost to participants.
If we work with 60 elders throughout the year then the Impact of 30 elders with most of them having over 4 to 5 children each and then those kids having about a medium of 5 kids means we are impacting in a year 200 families across the year.
Having our elder knowledge holders come back to country to be uninterrupted is also a great chance for us to record, share and keep culture alive. This is an opportunity for many of our aunties, grandmothers, and women who have mothered they whole life to be cared for with a retreat that enables nervous system resets. Having access to country also enables us to do ceremony and be in relationship with the lands that have cared for our people since time in memorial
Many of these Elders have been in care roles for their communities for the past 40 years and more. They’re living with poor health outcomes and life expectancy, economic disadvantage, intergenerational trauma and the pressures of leading communities and families who continue to experience the impacts of colonisation.
These culturally-safe retreats provide health and nervous system resets, vital health and wellbeing resources and tools, wellbeing treatments and time to rest, creating not only short-term health benefits, but also long-term ripple effects for the wider community.
If you would like to nominate an elder please reach out
Register your Interest for a Mob Only Retreat
The Returning recognises the critical importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural workers, facilitators, elders and teachers in contributing to better the health and wellness outcomes for our own community while maintaining and continuing culture. We pride ourselves on being Indigenous led and run.
In 2023 we are bringing high end healing retreat programs to our Indigenous communities. These retreats will focus on health, nutrition, movement, trauma assistance and healing and nervous system resets.
We provide full, half or partial scholarship positions to any Indigenous participant. These retreats are for those most disadvantaged in our community.
We want to inspire our community to heal, find health and wellness tools and build community and support for cultural leadership. We want to support those who may not have the financial means to find their healing.
The value of the Scholarship is currently $4,000 per retreat.
SCHOLARSHIP TICKETS
Scholarship opportunities are provided to this program are for:
~ Indigenous People
There are partial and full scholarships available.
Please choose a scholarship option based on your financial need.
We find the Green Bottle Sliding Scale by Worts & Cunnings helpful when considering where you may fit in our scholarship program (see image).
Please take the time to select which option best aligns with you.
If you would like to discuss this further, please reach out to us- we are here to help.
